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Memories of Merelbeke - een randgemeente van Gent

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Belgium 1970s

256

MERELBEKE

We lived in Belgium in the 1970s. Dad, Eric Hayles was working for Volvo Europa at Oostakker near Ghent and we moved into a house in the Verlorenbroodstraat in Merelbeke. We hope you enjoy our evocative photos of life in Merelbeke, a suburb of Ghent.

56 files, last one added on Oct 27, 2014
Album viewed 1973 times

GHENT/GENT BELGIUM

We lived near the beautiful city of Ghent (Gent) in Belgium in East Flanders (Oost Vlaanderen) from 1974 till 1978, although dad was there for about another six years after that. We hope you enjoy some of our photo archive from those happy times.

48 files, last one added on Oct 27, 2014
Album viewed 572 times

MERELBEKE FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS

Some of our wonderful neighbours and friends when we lived in Merelbeke. If you know any names that we haven't mentioned, please add them below the photo.

109 files, last one added on Oct 27, 2014
Album viewed 784 times

DANSCLUB TERPSICHORE MERELBEKE

Mum and dad had dancing lessons at the Dansclub Terpsichore in Hundelgemsesteenweg in 1977-78. These are pictures from one of their social functions.

15 files, last one added on Mar 15, 2014
Album viewed 598 times

OUT AND ABOUT IN BELGIUM

13 files, last one added on Mar 23, 2014
Album viewed 539 times

Our Welsh friends, the Davies Family

We attended church at the Evangelisch Centruum, Burgstraat, Gent, where we got to know the wonderful Davies family from Wales (the clue was in the name!) Charles and Betty, Godfrey, Joseph and Noel. There were also two sisters who weren't in Belgium. Charles was an accomplished artists and signwriter. He once had a job painting the Coca Cola logo on lorries, so he must have been very good! He also painted a sign for our neighbours opposite which read "Bobinage van motoren".

11 files, last one added on Apr 26, 2014
Album viewed 478 times

Documentation

Leaflets and other documentation from our time in Belgium

4 files, last one added on Dec 05, 2017
Album viewed 249 times

7 albums on 1 page(s)

Belgium 1990s

VISITS TO MERELBEKE IN 1990s

In the 1990s, along came the internet. Jonathan put "Merelbeke" into a search engine to see what he would see, and stumbled across the website of Sint-Michielsschool. After writing a greeting in the guest book he received a reply from Guy van Heddegem, and a friendship developed which led to Jonathan visiting Merelbeke in 1998 and writing a song which was performed at the school's Eindejaarshow. He visited again the following year. Here are some pictures from those shows.... we hope to bring you some video clips in the future too. Photos mostly by Jonathan Hayles, captions by Guy van Heddegem.

40 files, last one added on Mar 16, 2014
Album viewed 478 times

1 albums on 1 page(s)

296 files in 8 albums and 2 categories with 5 comments viewed 207,326 times

Last additions

GITO Merelbeke flyer van 1975 4/44170 viewsDec 05, 2017

GITO Merelbeke flyer van 1975 3/44006 viewsDec 05, 2017

1/4801 viewsDec 05, 2017

GITO Merelbeke leaflet from 1975 2/4607 viewsGITO Merelbeke flyer van 1975Dec 05, 2017

Cards at Number 31795 viewsOct 27, 2014

Wilfried at his mother's in Moortsele792 viewsOct 27, 2014

Wilfried's mother in Moortsele787 viewsOct 27, 2014

Wilfried and Lydiane at Wilfried's mother's in Moortsele794 viewsOct 27, 2014

Tram near the Gravensteen in Ghent, 19781386 viewsOct 27, 2014

Wilfried adds the finishing touches to his villa765 viewsOct 27, 2014

Lydiane makes sure Wilfried is doing things properly759 viewsOct 27, 2014

Wilfried adds the finishing touches to his villa753 viewsOct 27, 2014

Random files

Eric and Patricia435 views

The Atomium in Brussels in 1975358 views

Jonathan (aka Josh or Zors) and Ronny Meersschaut (aka Frein)544 views

Cousin Robin, Lydiane, Dad at The Atomium in Brussels363 views

Skating on ice on a small brook next to the Watersportsbaan in Ghent.1110 viewsThe Hayles brothers, December 19751 comments

Hilda & Marcel Meersschaut with our Uncle Fred475 views

Photo developers A Bracke in Merelbeke995 viewsWhen we lived in Merelbeke in the 1970s, a spooky old derelict building stood on the corner of Hundelgemsesteenweg and Van Goethemstraat, next to the potato yard. Then one day, a couple opened a smart little photo shop in part of it. They were related to the Piens family who lived next door to us in Verlorenbrooadstraat.

The finished photos came back in an envelope with a drawing of the building. The entrance was to the right, just behind the tree in the picture.

Visit to The Atomium Brussels 19752275 views

Eating out in Ypres548 viewsMaureen Hayles, Godfrey Davies (just!), Noel Davies, Charles Davies, Ivan Cowan, Josephine Cowan, Betty Davies.

Please watch Godfrey's tribute to his father where towards the end he recalls the occasion in this photograph.

http://www.forevermissed.com/shadowsflee/#gallery%2Fvideos%2F283772

The Davies family had gone to Ypres to have a meal in celebration of Charles and Betty's wedding anniversary.

Quite seperately, Eric and Maureen Hayles had gone to Ypres because Scottish friends from our church in England, Ivan and Josephine Cowan, wanted to visit there.

Ypres is near the French border, nowehere near Ghent, so you can imagine how suprised both parties were to bump in to each other there.

They all had a meal together, and it was a memorable occasion, as Godfrey recounts in his tribute.

Eric and Maureen Hayles Wilsonplein Gent 1975843 views

Ghent skyline 1979591 views

Boerderij in Merelbeke747 views